


the journey itself is home

by sorrlen



Series: we'll end up on that bridge again someday [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Star Trek Fusion, First Kiss, Getting Together, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Telepathic Bond, gaysssss in space!!!!, star trek and voltron literally go hand in hand, they are in love :)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-10
Updated: 2020-06-12
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:22:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 13,321
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24636022
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sorrlen/pseuds/sorrlen
Summary: Shiro drags his hand through his hair, the stripes on his cuff reflecting the severe lights overhead, and lets out a huff. “I didn’t think there’d come a day where you’d cite regulation at me.”Keith raises an eyebrow at him. “Is it working?”//a star trek adventure featuring the crew of the USS Voltron and their captain and first mate falling in love
Relationships: Allura/Lance (Voltron), Keith/Shiro (Voltron)
Series: we'll end up on that bridge again someday [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1781272
Comments: 39
Kudos: 95





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> as a lifelong star trek fan this was gonna come sooner or later :") i mixed together a few trek things, largely from the reboot so i hope you enjoy. for this, galra anatomy has their hearts in their sides, not in their chests.
> 
> thank you always to my partner-in-crime and beta [@prettymccree](https://archiveofourown.org/users/prettymccree) ♡

“It’s not a good idea,” Keith grinds out through his teeth. He stands, planting his hands on the table and pushes his chair back with a harsh screech. “Shiro, you can’t just-”

Shiro pinches the area between his eyebrows, his usually tidy forelock falling into his eyes. “Number One, you know that I have to.”

Lieutenant-Commanders Garrett and McClain stare nervously between the two of them. Outside the viewports, the stretch of stillness parallels the silence in the briefing room. Shiro’s jaw is clenched tight as he stares down at the datapad he’s holding, and Keith’s eyes are beginning to border on yellow.

“That’s enough,” the other Lieutenant-Commander McClain says firmly. “Captain, if I may, I think we should take some time to cool off.”

Lance exhales audibly and turns to Shiro. “I concur with Allura, Captain. I should be getting back to the bridge.”

“Me- me too, Captain,” Hunk rushes out, leaning away from where he’s sitting next to Keith. “I have to handle repairs at Engineering.”

Shiro looks around the room at each of their exhausted faces. He skips over Keith’s and Keith restrains himself from bristling. “Alright. Let’s reconvene in a while. Dismissed.”

Everyone begins to file out, with Hunk and Lance moving a bit too eagerly, leaving Keith and Shiro alone in the briefing room. Shiro nods at Allura’s comforting pat on his shoulder as she passes and Keith narrows his eyes.

The door slides shut behind them and there’s a tense moment before Shiro makes his way over to Keith’s side of the table, resting his weight against the smooth metal. Keith’s gaze is still resolutely fixed on the datapad in front of him.

“Keith,” Shiro starts, and Keith’s gaze snaps up to him.

“Don’t you Keith me,” Keith growls, and folds his arms. “Do you really want to go and put yourself in danger again? It could be Sendak, Shiro.”

“We only know that they encountered Empire Galra, Keith. It could be any of them. And they took Pidge and two crew members.” Shiro’s shoulders slump. “I shouldn’t have sent an away team down.”

Keith frowns and places a hand on Shiro’s forearm. “Our sensors only detected plant and animal life on the planet. Don’t blame yourself.”

“I still gave the order.” Shiro rests a hand on his forehead. “I need to go down and get them back.”

Keith groans. “Not alone, Shiro. You were suggesting beaming down by yourself-”

“-just to determine the number of hostiles, Keith,” Shiro interjects, voice pleading. “I know how they think, I’m the only one who’s ever made contact with them and made it out.”

“Section twelve, paragraph four.” Keith’s voice is unyielding. “The area has not been secured. Also, away team guidelines mean you can’t go down alone. Come on, Shiro.”

Shiro drags his hand through his hair, the stripes on his cuff reflecting the severe lights overhead, and lets out a huff. “I didn’t think there’d come a day where you’d cite regulation at me.”

Keith raises an eyebrow at him. “Is it working?”

“I think I may have been too… hasty,” Shiro acquiesces and lets out a short bark of laughter at Keith’s triumphant expression.

“You’re right, Keith. I would be no use to Voltron if I got captured too. I just- I saw the Empire uniforms before the transmission cut off and I saw red.” His prosthetic hand tightens around the edge of the table and Keith hears Shiro’s voice shake. “Now Katie’s gone.”

Keith pulls Shiro’s fingers away so he doesn’t crush the metal. “We’ll get her back, Shiro.”

Nodding, Shiro wraps his other arm around Keith and Keith sinks into the expanse of his chest. The room is quiet for a while, only broken by the soft sounds of their breathing.

“Thank you, Keith,” Shiro whispers, lifting a hand to his combadge. “Lieutenant-Commanders Garrett and McClains, meet me at transporter room one.

\---

“I know the language and we’ll have our security chief with us as a precaution,” Keith says, gesturing to Allura. “No contact, just in and out to ascertain hostile numbers and get a sense of the lay of the camp.”

Lance bites his lip, glancing nervously at his wife, but she waves his worries off with a gentle smile. “We’ll be fine, Lance. We’ll be on open com-channels throughout.”

Lance and Hunk watch as Shiro, Keith and Allura suit up, lit by the thrumming glow of the transporter pad. They’ve chosen dark, skintight suits to go in under the cover of the planet’s long night cycle and blackened moon.

Shiro helps Keith with the zip, hands moving from his tailbone to the nape of his neck, and Keith can’t understand why the suit abruptly feels a few sizes too small.

Keith gestures at Shiro to turn around so he can do the same and has to force his hand to be steady as he draws the zip upwards for what seems like forever, the interlocking material fusing slowly with either side. He has to reach up to fully close the zip, just below the shaved edge of Shiro’s undercut.

He remembers the last time he’d sent Shiro down in this suit and hadn’t seen him again for a year.

When the seam has disappeared, Keith smooths his hand over the planes of Shiro’s back and clears his throat.

“All done,” he mutters. Somehow his voice is still rusty.

Shiro goes to thump Hunk on the back. “We need you to keep working on the repairs, Hunk. Get us back to full communications capability and fill the Garrison in immediately on the situation here.”

Hunk gives them a thumbs up as they step up onto the pad. Keith does a final check on his phaser and slides it into the holder at his hip. He thinks of what would happen if Sendak was really down there. _Set it to kill_ , his brain supplies.

Lance kisses Allura softly and steps down from the pad. “Be safe, guys. Get Pidge back.”

Keith and Shiro nod at him.

“Energise,” Shiro’s voice rings out, and the world shimmers away in particles of silver.

\---

Glowing leaves hang from overhead as the away party reforms on the planet. The bioluminescence in the plants helps as Keith’s eyes readjust, but he sees Shiro and Allura blink rapidly.

“Vision isn’t so clear,” Allura mutters. “About forty percent.”

“Same here.” Shiro’s swinging his head around, trying to get a grasp of their orientation.

“I’m good, Allura. Captain, you and Allura can follow me.”

Keith knows he has his Galran half to thank as he steps lightly around tree roots that sprawl across the forest floor. He reaches back to ground his teammates from time to time as both of them struggle not to trip.

They had beamed down about thirty metres from the fringes of the Empire camp, but the low visibility is hampering their travel, making the short distance feel like an eternity. The thin moonlight does little to help.

Finally, the bright lights of the campsite stream through the tree branches as they approach, the quintessence fuelling them violet and corrupted. Container-like buildings have been set up in a rough circle, bordered by a three-metre-high fence.

“Light security patrols,” Keith says grimly. “Buildings for an estimated thirty soldiers altogether.”

“How could our sensors not have picked them up?” Allura’s tone is tight.

The camp lights illuminate Shiro’s frown. “Blocked our scans, maybe. We should get closer, try to figure out where they’re holding Katie and the others.”

Lance’s voice crackles through. “Captain, your transmission is unstable. Hunk’s working on it. We need you to get out of there soon.”

Only two patrols seem to be on duty, so they head towards a shadowed area of fence.

“Strange, it isn’t quintessence-fortified,” Allura says, stretching a hand towards it. “I can’t sense any usual surveillance.”

“Let’s just get in and out,” Shiro directs, eyes fixed on the sentries.

Keith pulls out his phaser and cuts through the net, bending it back so that there’s an opening large enough to fit through. The blue quintessence beam cleaves through the metal silently.

It’s all clear, so Keith forges ahead, running swiftly to crouch behind a container. Allura and Shiro dart across the open to stop behind him.

“I don’t think they’re just after the plants in this planet,” Allura says, pointing at a huge tarp.

Keith follows her gaze and a stone drops in his stomach. What had looked like a large tent from afar was actually a shroud over what looks to be multiple military vehicles, primed for action.

“Fuck. Keith to Voltron - they have three tanks and some hoverbikes. This isn’t just a simple operation.”

“Understood, Commander Keith.”

Suddenly, Shiro grabs their arms and jerks his head towards a smaller container with two sentries standing guard outside. They’ve been stationary. If there’s any place they’re keeping Katie, Keith would place his money on it.

The camp feels at ease and most of the soldiers are asleep. They may not have a better chance. But something’s giving Keith second thoughts.

“Captain,” Keith hisses. “This was meant to be recon only.”

“This may be our only opportunity to get Katie back, Keith.” Shiro’s mouth is set in a hard line. “Those tanks look ready to go. They may not be here when we come back.”

There’s no way for Voltron to track them either. It has to be now. Keith nods reluctantly.

They make their way towards the container as one, ducking behind crates and containers and keeping to the shadows.

Keith throws a pebble to the side of the container so the sentries move to investigate, walking away from the camp lights. Allura strikes immediately, singing a hole in the first sentry’s head with her phaser. Shiro catches it as it falls, lowering the sentry to the ground.

Keith lunges at the other to push its blade away from Allura and kicks the sentry’s legs so that it tumbles towards the ground. He catches it with one arm and aims his phaser at the back of its neck.

They seat the two sentries’ bodies together behind the container. Keith cuts off one sentry arm and runs back to the container doors. Shiro and Allura crouch beside him.

Placing it to the scanner, Keith looks out at the moving sentry light. It’s sweeping over the dirt towards Keith and he readies himself to spring away when the door unlocks with a click. He hurriedly flings open the door and waves Shiro and Allura in. The door shuts behind them just as the sentry light hits the ground that Keith had just occupied.

The room is pitch black.

“Ugh,” Keith groans. “Keith to Voltron.”

There’s only answering static.

“Captain,” Allura says as she takes a step back. “I don’t think this is the right room.”

Suddenly the lights go on, blinding them. Keith is the first to blink away the spots and stares in horror at the scene before him.

“No, Princess, this _isn’t_ the right room.” The corners of Sendak’s mouth curl upwards mockingly as he steps forward, flanked by five other Galra.

Keith feels Shiro stiffen beside him. Allura’s hands fly to her phaser and Sendak shoots it out of her hands. She lets out a cry as the phaser falls to the ground, her hands singed a dark red.

Shiro immediately pushes her behind him.

“Sendak,” he growls, left arm powering up in a wave of violet light.

“Thought we’d established that already.” Sendak lets out a loud yawn. “Good to see you again, Champion.”

“Don’t call him that,” Keith snarls and moves closer to Shiro, flicking his claws out.

“If it isn’t Commander Keith. I wouldn’t say I’m happy to see you again, seeing as you stole our Champion from the Empire,” Sendak sneers. “How does it feel to be a traitor to your own kind?”

“Where are the people you captured, Sendak?” Shiro interrupts, voice cold. He holds his Galra arm in front of him, and Keith sees fear shine in the eyes of some of the Galra soldiers.

“You’ll never see them again if you use that arm we gave you, Champion. I wouldn’t recommend it.”

Sendak waves a hand and the Galra behind him point their guns at the away team. “Drop your weapons.”

Slowly, Shiro and Keith place their phasers on the floor. The soldiers advance on them.

Keith’s looking between Allura and Shiro, trying his best to come up with a plan, anything. He sees a spark of violet light flicker in the hands Allura’s holding behind her back, and that’s all the warning they get before she throws a ball of quintessence towards Sendak.

Keith flings the sentry arm towards the scanner and the door unlocks. The quintessence she threw explodes in a wall of fire and the container is alight with flames and screams, the force propelling the three of them out of the container. They land hard on the ground and Keith groans as he feels something shift in his left arm.

The whole camp is awake now in a riot of sirens. The sentry lights are trained on them. Everywhere they turn, sentries are closing in. Shiro hobbles to his feet and drags Allura up.

“Voltron, three to beam up, now!” Shiro’s hollering into his combadge.

“Captain, we can’t get a lock on you,” Lance cries. “They’re disrupting your signals. You have to get out of the camp.”

Shiro swears and lifts Keith up with his other arm. Keith holds on tightly to him, cringing as his shoulder protests.

The three of them stand back to back as the sentries form a circle around them. Two of them part as Sendak stalks towards them, blood dripping down his shoulder.

“You’ll pay for that, Princess.” There’s a harsh whine as Sendak activates his weapon arm.

Shiro does the same. Keith’s phaser is gone, probably melted down by now in Allura’s fire. But he still has his knife.

He draws it from his boot and there’s a moment where Sendak stares at it incredulously. He breaks out into guffaws and Keith grits his teeth.

“These are supposed to be from the best crew the Garrison has to offer? Come now, Champion, surely you’d rather return to us.”

He steps forwards and Keith braces himself, but suddenly they’re all on their knees as a hail of dirt flies onto the members of Garrison and Empire alike. It’s the tanks, each exploding in turn with a loud noise that rocks the camp, and the tarp goes up in flames.

Sendak whips his head back to them, eyes burning with rage. “How dare you,” he screams, as his arm flies out towards them.

“Move,” Shiro yells, and the three of them jump to the side as his fist barely misses them.

Shiro slices through the sentries around them as he whirls around, arm lit a frightening purple. He sprints towards Sendak and Keith tries to follow, only to cry out in frustration as sentries surround him.

Allura’s fighting her own set of Galra soldiers, arms whipping around as she draws the quintessence from the equipment around her. They scream as the beam of light she sends out burns through their armour, but Keith knows that Allura can’t use too much of the corrupted quintessence.

Already she begins to flag, resorting to a mix of combat with her magic. Keith desperately tries to reach her, but the Galra keep coming, and Keith can only attend to a few at a time. They’d obviously greatly underestimated enemy numbers.

He sees a sentry aiming to fire from behind her as he slices through the chest of another.

“Allura! Behind you!” His voice is a hoarse, terrible thing, but she hears it. Keith’s heart seizes as she turns to face the sentry. He knows it’s too late-

The sentry lowers its weapon. Keith can’t make sense of it.

Then it falls to the ground. A masked, hooded figure stands in its wake. Another of the same comes to join them, running from the direction of the smouldering tanks.

Keith doesn’t know who they are, but they rush in to fight alongside Allura. His chest is heaving, his arm now screaming in pain as he sprints towards Shiro and Sendak. They’ve moved towards the edge of the camp, a violent dance of purple light that tears into the containers around them.

Shiro’s bleeding from a gash on his forehead, obviously limping, and Sendak’s bearing down on him with a fury.

Keith doesn’t think. His hand flies out and he launches his knife straight at Sendak. It buries itself in Sendak’s torso with a wet, crunching sound, and Sendak falls backwards with a cry.

“Shiro, Shiro, I got you,” Keith pants out, pulling Shiro’s arm to rest on his shoulders as Allura and the two masked figures reach them.

“You have to get out of here,” The tallest figure says urgently, as they wrench Keith’s knife out of Sendak. They smash a rock against Sendak’s head, cutting off his bellow of rage. “We will contact you later.”

They move as quickly as they can into the forest, back the way they came with the masked figures helping to hold Allura and Shiro up.

“Captain, we have a lock on you.” Hunk’s voice suddenly comes through, and Keith feels like he could weep with relief.

The masked figure hands him back his knife. Keith nods at them and presses on his combadge. “Three to beam up. Energise.”

“Yes, Commander,” Hunk says. The familiar sensation of his molecules dissipating begins as silver light encircles them and Keith exhales.

Then Shiro screams. He’s jerked from where he’s propped up on a tree trunk and falls onto the floor, Sendak’s claws wrapped firmly around his leg.

“Shiro,” Keith cries out, and he lunges to grab on to him. His fingertips just brush Shiro’s skin as he’s dragged back towards the camp. Shiro’s scared eyes meet his just before he disappears into the dark.

Keith takes off.

“You have to hold still! Stop moving!” Hunk’s voice is frantic, and Keith can hear the beeps with how rapidly he’s recalculating the transporter. Keith’s barrelling towards Shiro, who’s clinging onto the roots, rocks, anything he can grasp to slow Sendak’s arm.

Sendak’s arm is fast, but Keith’s faster. He pushes off a rock face and launches himself onto Shiro, digging into Shiro’s torso with his hands. He’s halted the arm, but Shiro’s being pulled from both ends and he’s crying out in pain.

Keith digs his feet into the ground and reaches forward to stab Sendak’s hand repeatedly with his knife. It slackens for a bit, but redoubles its efforts. Keith’s beginning to be dragged along as well, his feet uprooting the soil as he strains to hold Shiro in place.

“Voltron, now, _now_ ,” Keith yells, his knees buckling. He hears voices coming from the direction of the camp and panics, hands scrabbling for better purchase on Shiro’s back.

“We can’t differentiate between Sendak and Shiro, Keith,” Hunk cries. “We’ve only got a lock on you and Allura. The transporter can barely do it with how close you and Shiro are to the camp!”

The two masked figures are now by Keith’s side, helping to hold Shiro in place and trying to pry Sendak’s hand off Shiro’s leg. Shiro’s groaning in pain as the claws dig even further into Shiro’s leg, the spilling blood further darkening the material of his suit.

“It’s hurting him, stop,” Keith sobs, one hand pulling at Shiro and the other cradling his head, anything to give him some comfort. He shouldn’t have let Shiro beam down. This is all his fault.

“Keith.” Shiro struggles to lift his head, his words barely audible. “You have to go.”

“What are you talking about,” Keith shrieks, stabbing at Sendak’s hand futilely with his knife. He’s pretty sure his other arm is going to pop out of its socket.

“Sendak only wants me,” Shiro pants out. “You and Allura go.”

Keith refuses to even comprehend what Shiro’s saying to him. “Hunk, Hunk, please,” Keith pleads into the combadge.

“I can’t do anything, Keith,” Hunk yells back, and Keith wants to scream but he can’t get enough air.

A huge rumble starts from the direction of the camp. The masked figures look at Keith.

“Tanks are coming this way. They must have hidden them at another location. You need to leave.”

Vibrations start through the ground and the trees fall like dominoes as the tanks approach. Keith’s attacking Sendak’s hand more viciously now, gouging out deep ribbons of metal, but it remains firmly embedded in Shiro’s calf.

“Listen, Keith,” Shiro tries, his words slurring together. “You have to go.” He nods towards the masked figures. “Please, help me get Keith to safety. Please.”

“Shiro, what are you doing?” Keith can barely croak out the words. He feels like his body is going to snap in half. The masked figures look between him and the oncoming tanks and then grab hold of Keith’s arms.

“No, no, please- ” Keith tries to wrench away but they hold on to him with a grip like iron. The tanks are almost upon them and Keith’s hands are letting go off Shiro on their own accord, the muscles in his arms faltering.

“Captain!” Allura cries out somewhere behind them, having stumbled through the forest to them half-blind.

The masked figures pull him off Shiro just as the trees right next to them fall. Keith only has time to see the silhouette of Sendak and the purple lines of two tanks at his back before he gets yanked back towards the forest. Sendak’s huddled over the gaping wound in his ribs, held upright by two Galra soldiers, but staring at Shiro captive in his arm with utter glee.

“I have a better lock - on to - Keith and Allura. I can’t - get you Captain!” The static’s muddling Hunk’s voice as tears begin to muddle Keith’s vision.

Keith stretches a hand out to Shiro as the distance between them grows. He’s helpless against the insistence of their masked allies¸ flopping in their arms like a spent ragdoll as he gets further and further from Shiro.

Shiro, who’s getting pulled back towards Sendak slowly, as though Sendak wants him to lie in the mud longer while bleeding out from his leg.

He sees the moment Hunk’s words register in Shiro’s mind and time slows before Keith’s eyes as Shiro musters the last of his strength to raise his hand to his combadge. Keith knows what he’s going to do.

“No, don’t do it Shiro!” His own cries fill his ears. “No!”

For a moment, Keith strains against the two masked figures enough that he halts their progress. He’s shaking his head, tears now streaming down his cheeks as he kicks at the ground.

Shiro looks right into his eyes. Keith’s gasping so hard, his mouth still shaping the word _stop_.

“Shiro to Voltron.” Shiro grounds out, pain leeching into the lines of his face as he speaks. “Two to beam up.”

Keith turns to ice.

“No! Shiro!” Keith screams, his words swallowed by the silver starting to spin around his body. He lunges in a last attempt to grab at Shiro, but it’s too late.

The outline of Shiro’s bowed head stays in the backs of his eyelids as the world fades.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “The bond need not be romantic, Keith. Who is the person that is closest to your mind and your heart?”
> 
> It’s not something Keith has to think on. The answer leaps to his lips, unbidden. It’s the name he meditates on daily, the smile he fights for. The soul he’s devoted himself to since the Garrison. The man he’ll go to the ends of space to find, though he already did.

The air is still as Keith and Allura reform on the transporter pad.

Keith’s on his knees, shuddering through his tears and staring at the empty circle on the transporter pad next to him.

Lance rushes onto the pad to hold Allura up, looking over her burnt hands and the cuts spread on her body.

“Medbay, now,” he orders, handing Allura over to Coran, who brings her away with the assistance of a nurse.

Hunk’s eyes are wide, sweat dripping down his non-regulation headband onto his red shirt. Lance goes to hold Keith’s shoulder and flinches away when Keith hisses at him.

“Commander, you have to get yourself checked out,” Lance says, voice trembling.

Keith can’t think right now. He feels a dull pain in his palms and looks down. His claws have extended into his flesh, drawing blood.

“Hunk,” he croaks out. “Beam me back down.”

Hunk backs away from the console. “Commander,” he whispers, looking nervously at Lance. “We need you to calm down.”

Keith reaches out to touch the empty circle. “He’s down there,” he says, and each word comes like a welt on his tongue. “They took him again.”

“Commander.” Lance reaches towards him slowly. “You need to get healed and rest-”

Outrage propels Keith to his feet. “Rest?!” He exclaims, his voice reaching a feverish pitch. “He sacrificed himself for us and now Sendak has him-”

Keith stops and bends over to retch, wheezing as a fresh wave of tears fills his eyes. Coran is back in the room, staring at Keith in dismay.

“No,” Keith continues when he can manage words again. “Hunk, energise, now.”

“As your Chief Medical Officer,” Coran interjects. “I say that we need to examine your injuries. Your shoulder is obviously dislocated, Commander.”

Keith screams in frustration. There’s an enormous weight clouding his brain, telling Keith he has to get Shiro back immediately. It’s too painful. The pain will only go away once Shiro is safe with them, he knows.

“Don’t you understand?” He unfurls his fingers, flicking out his claws. “Shiro’s down there alone! Hunk, I order you to beam me down right away.” 

Hunk inhales sharply and looks at Coran, who’s moving towards Keith like he’s a scared animal.

“I’m afraid I can’t do that, Commander,” Hunk says, hands shaking as he rushes forward and locks the transporter console.

The pain flares in Keith’s forehead and Keith snarls, whirling on Hunk. “You will obey me, Lieutenant-Commander Garrett-”

And feels the familiar sensation of a hypospray locking onto his neck.

“I’m sorry, Commander,” Coran says, as Keith slips into the darkness.

\---

Keith blinks awake to a presence at the edge of his bed. He almost springs out of it, but the figure holds fast to his ankle.

“I wouldn’t advise that, Commander.” Coran smiles down at him. “How are you feeling?”

The cold, stark lights of medbay paint his skin in a pale light, the quiet beeping of the machines measuring his vitals strangely calming. He immediately looks for Allura and is relieved to see her sleeping soundly in the next bed, the dermal regenerator having healed her palms.

The pain in his head has quelled, leaving a light throb that he can ignore.

“Better,” Keith groans. He tries to sit up, but is held back by the bed restraints. Restraints? “Coran? What’s going on?”

Coran studies his face for a long while before pressing a button. The bands across his torso and legs retract and Keith holds a hand up to his forehead. Though his skin has been healed and his shoulder reset, his body aches feels like he’s fought a le-matya and lost.

“Commander, how much do you remember from the time you beamed back onto the ship?” Coran asks gently. Keith frowns.

“I was kneeling on the pad. And-” He stops short as his actions come back to him. “Fuck. Did I hurt anyone?”

“No, thankfully, your body did not fight the hypospray.”

Coran walks around the bed to examine the holochart above Keith’s bed. “It looks like you went through significantly high levels of stress before I used the hypospray, Commander,” he says, uncharacteristically serious.

Keith scrubs at his eyes. “It was a- a recurrence of what happened last year,” he mutters.

“Indeed.” Coran swipes his fingers over the chart. “Elevated heart rate, perspiration, almost traumatic levels of telepathy. I think it would be wise to inform the captain.”

Keith immediately holds up a hand. _Shiro can’t know_.

“It won’t happen again, Coran. I just have to get him back.”

“But-”

“I have to talk to Hunk and Lance, Coran,” Keith says resolutely as Coran sighs, swinging his legs over the side of the bed. “I’m calling for a meeting at the briefing room.”

Coran frowns at his medical records. “I would recommend rest, but I know you’d ignore it. Just don’t go damaging the ribs I just healed.”

Keith turns to nod at him, already half out the door.

“Thanks doc.”

\---

“Status report,” Keith calls, slumping into his chair.

He massages at his temples as Lance and Hunk relay their progress. Scans still don’t pick up on lifeforms other than flora and fauna, but they’ve made headway on a channel to the Garrison.

“I probably need a few more vargas,” Hunk says hesitantly. “We isolated a jamming signal coming from the location of the camp and I’m coming up with a workaround.”

It’s better than what he hoped.

“Thank you, Hunk.” Keith nods at him and turns to Lance.

“You had Alpha shift, so I just wanted to let you know that Allura’s recovering well. She’s just tired out from using so much quintessence.”

Lance exhales, hands relaxing from the clenched fists they’d been tightened in since the meeting started. “I appreciate it, Commander.”

Keith steels himself before continuing.

“I also wanted to apologise for my behaviour in the transporter room.”

Lance and Hunk immediately try to brush it off, but Keith holds up a hand.

“I should have been more in control of myself, Hunk. I haven’t meditated properly since Pidge was taken. But threatening you was unacceptable.”

Hunk clears his throat. “Commander, if I may, I know it was hard for you. We all- we all heard what happened.”

Lance stands. “We’ll get our Captain back,” he says, pounding a fist onto the table. “Him and Pidge. They’ll be back before we know it.”

Hunk cheers and Keith can’t help but grin. They have the best crew in the Garrison.

A beep sounds. “Commander Keith, please come to the bridge. We’re being hailed by someone on the planet.”

They meet each other’s eyes before rushing out to the bridge, Keith’s legs taking him automatically to right behind the captain’s chair. It’s usually filled with a mass of a man, smiling and joking with the bridge crew, constantly looking to his shoulder for Keith.

Now, Keith averts his eyes. 

“Source?” He asks Romelle, who’s shaking her head at the comms station. Lance takes his seat at the navigation console.

“Encrypted, Commander,” she replies.

Keith grits his teeth. He has to take the risk. “Put it through.”

The masked figure from the camp fills the screen, and Keith has to push down the warring feelings of relief and sadness in his stomach.

“Commander Keith of the USS Voltron. We are well met.” They hold up their fingers in the traditional Galran salute, which Keith automatically returns, parting his fingers into a neat V.

They’re Galra too? Keith’s confused. Not the people indigenous to the planet that he’d guessed. But it also means they have a stake in the Garrison-Empire conflict.

“Indeed,” Keith says, lowering his hand. “Thank you for your assistance earlier on the planet.”

“No thanks are necessary. It was only logical.” Their voice is monotonous, filtered through their mask.

Logical. Keith’s heard of the Galra who unfetter themselves from emotion, but only in passing rumours.

“We wish to invite you to meet with our leader. Only you. The coordinates have just been sent to your ship.”

Keith startles, eyes widening at the screen. “Have you been monitoring us?”

The masked figure nods unabashedly. “It is our prerogative to monitor any ship within orbit of this planet for reasons of security. But we have also heard of you, Commander Keith of the USS Voltron.”

Keith’s first instinct is to groan. It’s not as if the installation of the first half-Galran, half-human Garrison officer on board the finest ship in the Garrison fleet had been discreet, what with all the major planetwide reports foregrounding his heritage over his qualifications. At its worst, he had been painted as a suspected informant for the Empire up till a year ago.

But he’s also supposed to be a trained diplomat, so he settles for a neutral expression.

“Why this planet? And why me?”

But their supposed ally only bows his head. “I cannot give you any more than this, Commander. Know that you cannot secure the lives of your crew without aid. Beam down to this location in half a varga from now. Ensure you are alone and unarmed.”

The channel closes. Romelle taps on her screen, only to shake her head.

“I can’t hail them, Commander. Their signal has disappeared.”

“Commander, I don’t recommend you beaming down alone,” Hunk says, chewing on his lower lip. “We don’t know anything about this rebel faction.”

“I understand, Hunk.” Keith looks back to the viewscreen, to the smoky atmosphere of the planet below. “But I have no choice. I’ll try to keep an open channel.”

He heads to the turbolift. “If I’m not back or I don’t contact you within three vargas, you know the coordinates. Lieutenant-Commander McClain, you have the bridge.”

A hand on his arm stops him before the doors slide shut. “Here,” Coran whispers, pushing a hypospray into Keith’s hands. “What I gave you will only last for another varga. Use this when you feel your telepathy go into flux again.”

Keith takes the hypospray gratefully and the lift descends.

\---

Strange, tingling raindrops splatter onto his skin as he arrives at the coordinates. A masked figure is there, though shorter than the one who had fought alongside them at the camp. Keith doesn’t recognise his surroundings, only that they’re on elevated ground.

It’s a cave-like opening, and Keith follows them further into the reaches of the stone tunnels. Practically a maze, each tunnel leads to other networks that Keith can barely get a glimpse of in the low light as he’s directed along.

His combadge is silent when he taps on it. _So much for open channels. There must be some sort of jammer here too._

As though it couldn’t be worse, the tingle in his head slowly starts to make its presence felt again. He really hopes something comes of this. Every second here is a second away from rescuing Shiro and the others.

Finally, Keith’s feet tap on metal as he’s led into a high-ceilinged chamber, quintessence lining the walls. There’s a gathering of their associates, one standing on a slightly raised dais and flanked by another, and surprise, they’re all wearing masks.

Keith supposes facial expressions aren’t necessary if you don’t emote.

The one on the platform raises his hand in the Galran salute again and Keith replies in kind. As soon as he steps up towards who he assumes the leader is, the figure behind him flinches.

They come forward slowly and deactivate their mask.

She’s slightly taller than Keith and built like a warrior, but Keith can’t take his eyes from her face.

“Keith?” She murmurs, and Keith feels his knees give way. It can’t be.

She catches him easily, holding him at arm’s length, and stares into his eyes. They’re the same as hers.

“I saw the blade earlier- It is you,” she cries, and pulls him into a tight hug, stroking the back of his head.

Keith’s stunned, arms instinctively coming up to fold around her. Behind her, the other Galra reveal their faces. They all wear pensive, still expressions, but Keith catches the slightest hint of a smile in the leader’s face.

“Mom?”

\---

Shiro wakes up in a Galra cell.

He shuts his eyes immediately upon glimpsing the purple lights around him. It’s too familiar. Maybe, if he just goes back to sleep, he’ll wake up on Voltron.

“Captain,” an urgent voice whispers. “Shiro, come on.”

An insistent shake to his arm does it. He groans and sits up slowly, hands immediately guiding him to lean against the wall. The movement jostles his leg, trussed up in a blue Garrison shirt, and he bites back a whimper.

Lieutenant-Commander Holt peers back at him, clad in her black undershirt. Her face sports a gash on her cheek and a bruised eye, but she seems otherwise unharmed.

“Katie,” he exhales. “Thank god.”

“Shiro,” she says, and throws her arms around his neck. “I was so scared when they threw you in here, you were bleeding so badly and I didn’t have my medkit-”

“It’s okay, Katie.” He pats her back soothingly until she draws away, shoulders shaking.

“I think they may have killed the others, Shiro.” She wipes at her eyes. “I know they wanted to put us in separate cells, but they only have these makeshift container things, and they’re on the move right now.”

Shiro has only a moment to process the loss of his crew members. He draws in a measured breath, already thinking of how he’ll have to break the news to their parents that he failed to keep them safe. _Fuck._

“I don’t know where they’re going, but I think they’re looking for something. They definitely weren’t expecting to run into me and Jennings and Chong. They’re here for something else, and we just _had_ to encounter them even though we had the whole planet.”

Pidge’s pacing now, traipsing the length of their cell in a few steps as the ground shifts underneath the container floor. They’re on some kind of slope, judging by the elevation. He can’t see anything else in the cell from this vantage point.

He looks down at his arms and sees harsh, reddened lines in his flesh arm, remnants of desperate hands-turned-claws holding onto him.

Keith.

The moments before his capture come to him and he hobbles to his feet, grasping frantically at the wall to steady himself. Pain lances up his leg, but it’s not important anymore. God, if Keith’d been captured too-

“What are you doing?” Pidge chastises, squinting at him.

“Keith, Keith,” he rasps out, fighting to keep upright and look into the next section of the container.

Pidge gets a good handle on his arm and makes him sit.

“He’s not here, Shiro,” she says, and it’s like the all the fight Shiro has left escapes him. He sags back into the wall. The look in Keith’s eyes before Shiro gave the order to beam him up fills his vision.

He tries his combadge weakly, already expecting the static that it gives off.

“The jamming signal is stronger in here,” Pidge continues. “But when I was waiting for Voltron to come get me, I’ve been examining the bioluminescence I extracted from the trees before I was captured. They didn’t bother to confiscate it.”

She walks over to the pile of what Shiro had thought was scrap metal in the corner of the container, pulling back the tarp to reveal what Sendak’s soldiers must have salvaged from the tanks that were blown up. Some of the fragments have flecks of glowing liquid splattered across them.

“I heard the explosions from inside the container.”

The tone of her voice makes Shiro glance up at her.

“Oh yeah,” Pidge says, a slow smile spreading across her face. “We’re getting out of here.”

\---

The others have left them in the room for some semblance of privacy. Keith’s sitting rigidly in a chair, Krolia next to him, and he keeps alternating between looking at her and dropping his eyes to the table. Questions swirl in his mind, a riot of _whys_ and _hows_ , but the pounding in his mind is intensifying and he feels like he’ll explode if he opens his mouth-

Krolia reaches out for him, settling her hands on his shoulders.

“I can feel your thoughts,” she whispers. “They are so unsettled. Breathe, Keith, and ask your questions in time.”

Keith swallows, gazing into her keen eyes.

“How did you find me,” slips from Keith’s mouth, and though he tries to hold it back, “and why did you- why did you leave?”

Her jaw tenses, and she blinks slowly before she speaks.

“I saw you, Keith, in the Garrison announcements. The likeness was- incredible. And especially after the images in the news that you’d rescued Captain Shirogane, I’d hoped so much that it was you.”

Keith can feel his mother’s hesitance through her tremulous fingers on his skin. Her mind too, radiating a soothing presence Keith’s missed his whole life, but at a respectful distance.

“It was necessary for me to leave. I was putting you and your father in danger, Keith. The Empire had tracked me somehow, and I had to return to the Blade to stop them from hurting you or anyone else.”

The more she speaks, the more he curls in on himself. Keith’s father had been adamant that his mother had loved him, would always love him, but snide comments from teachers, peers in the Garrison had him believing that his mother was just another overemotional, enraged Galra. Ready to leave her family behind. Ready to leave Keith behind.

Keith can’t help letting out a dry sob. “He’s dead, mom. Dad’s been gone for a long time.”

The presence at the edge of his mind jerks back.

“What?” She cries, eyes seeking his for anything but confirmation. “He’s gone?”

Keith nods dully. He feels the anguish in her mind resonate with his, throbbing with grief, and reaches out for her. She immediately wraps his mind in warmth, comfort leaching into both their minds from the contact.

“I will never leave you again, Keith,” she says into his shoulder, and Keith only realises she’s been embracing him in person as well when he opens his eyes. They hold onto each other for a while as Krolia’s breathing steadies.

“I thought the Blade was a group that didn’t have emotions.” Keith tries for a joke, and is rewarded by Krolia’s short, tearful laugh.

“We have them, Keith. Like all Galra, our emotions run wild inside us. The Blade of Marmora only maintains a distance from them. We find that a stable resistance may only be successful without our feelings overwhelming us.”

She places a hand on his heart.

“But when it comes to matters of family, Keith, there is joy.”

Her face clouds over slightly. “The bond I had with your father- broke. But I believed it was because I had been away at such a distance for so long.”

Keith’s horrified. A fractured Galra bond would more often than not result in insanity. “Broke? But that would mean-”

Krolia nods slowly, her eyes shuttering. “I do not lie when I say that it was difficult, Keith. I lost control of myself many times, and if not for the Blade, the mental imbalance would have been fatal.”

She shakes her head. “It is sorrowful, but at least I have you now. Kaiidth. _It is what it is_.”

Keith exhales. They spend a moment longer side by side, Keith revelling in the steady thrum of her mind grazing his.

It’s peaceful, but the next wave of Keith’s migraine hits hard, and he doubles over with a groan.

 _Damn._ He tastes iron from where he’d bitten down on his tongue. Krolia blinks at him, the telepathic surge probably a hammer to her honed Galra senses. In that way Keith’s glad he only has half the strength of Galra sensitivity.

“What’s happening, Keith?” She’s on her feet, glancing towards the door where help no doubt awaits. Keith grabs her arm and with the other, fumbles with the hypospray Coran had passed to him.

“Please don’t,” Keith groans out, as he puts the hypospray to his neck and empties it into his bloodstream with a hiss. The pounding in his mind retreats instantly.

He stands as well, looking up at her. “Don’t tell the other Blades, please. I need to be there when we get Shiro back. I just haven’t meditated in a few days-”

Krolia takes a step towards him, her eyes watchful. “Keith. Surely you know that what you have experienced is not borne from a lack of meditation.”

Keith looks down at the hypospray in his hands and back to her, taken aback at her insistent tone.

“No, mom, I’ve had this before. I get like this because I haven’t meditated or slept.”

She puts a hand on his cheek. “No,” she whispers. “Keith, you are experiencing strain on your bond.”

The moment the words leave her mouth, Keith recoils in shock, pulling away from her. “Mom, I was never betrothed. I have- I have no mate.”

“Indeed, Galra have preliminary betrothals in their youth. But that is not what I am referring to, Keith. We need mates, yes? To balance our emotions, to keep us in check. Without a mate, Galra tend to project telepathic bonds onto a trusted one.”

Keith blinks furiously and runs his hands through his hair. “Are you saying that I’ve- I’ve imprinted mentally onto someone? Because I’ve never been with anyone, not like that.”

Krolia puts her hands on his shoulders. “The bond need not be romantic, Keith. Who is the person that is closest to your mind and your heart?”

It’s not something Keith has to think on. The answer leaps to his lips, unbidden. It’s the name he meditates on daily, the smile he fights for. The soul he’s devoted himself to since the Garrison. The man he’ll go to the ends of space to find, though he already did.

“Shiro,” he says, and Krolia nods, as though she expected it.

“He is your t’hy’la, Keith.” Her deft fingers pull up a hologram of Shiro, handsome in his formal Garrison uniform, and Keith at his side. It had been the image broadcasted on all Garrison subspace channels on the day Voltron had been commissioned for its first five-year mission.

Keith’s fingers slide through the particles as he reaches out for Shiro’s face.

“T’hy’la,” Krolia repeats. “Friend, brother and lover.”

Keith feels his heart seize. She stares at him, and when he doesn’t bother to correct her, she presses a button to let the Blades return to the room.

\---

Shiro’s concerned that they’re going to blow themselves up.

Pidge’s been muttering for the past few hours, fiddling with the bits and bobs from the ruined tank and her precious tube of glowing plant extract. Twice her contraption had emitted an earthy-smelling sort of smoke, and Shiro’d almost had a heart attack when an Empire soldier had flung the door open.

They’d managed to throw some rags over it, but Shiro’s worried that they won’t be so lucky next time.

“How’s it going?” He tries to keep his voice casual, but the container’s been moving for almost two hours now, he’s guessing. Going by the usual Empire schedule, they would be stopping for a break soon, and it would be prime time for Sendak to pay them a visit.

Pidge glares at him from the corner of her eye. “Captain, the rebels who used this obviously have a much better understanding of the composition of the plants than I do. I’m trying to put their bomb back together.”

Shiro nods vigorously, patting Pidge heavily on the back. “Good work, Katie.”

She mumbles out some acknowledgement, but her attention has returned to the device in her hands.

His injured leg is numb, and it hurts to breathe, but he’s thankful for the company of his Science Officer. Being alone would have been too much like before.

Keith had saved him, after a year of windowless violet walls. He’d smashed open the cell walls and brought Shiro back into the world. He wonders how Keith’s doing back on Voltron, whether or not he’s remembering to meditate or eat.

He shudders through a bout of pain emanating from his leg. It would be hopeless to try and walk, and Katie’s too small to lift him.

“Katie,” he tries. “If you get the opportunity to use the explosive, you run okay? You get out of here and as far from the camp as possible to signal Voltron.”

Pidge turns her head deliberately to face him, and he’s not prepared for the sting of her gaze. “I don’t want to hear your self-sacrificing bullshit, Captain. I’m not leaving you behind.”

She jabs at the almost-bomb in her hand forcefully, and okay, Shiro’s afraid. “I gotta get you back to the Commander, right? It must be hurting him, you being his mate and all.”

Shiro chokes forcefully, the pain in his ribs forgotten as he proceeds to hack up his lungs.

“What do you mean mate?” Shiro hisses, once he’s gotten a bearing on his vocal cords. He can’t speak for his heart, which seems to have gone into overdrive.

“Mate,” Pidge says absently, absorbed in her tinkering. “Galras need mates to keep their telepathy in check and not go mad.”

Shiro’s really trying to concentrate on keeping his voice steady, even as his mind shamefully fills with the limited knowledge the Garrison taught of _pon farr_. Galran mating fever. Keith- _Keith_ in mating fever, oh god.

“Keith’s only half-Galra,” he protests weakly.

“Yeah, so? Doesn’t mean he doesn’t have Galran needs.” She bites her lip in concentration as what she’s holding in her hands gives off a small spark. “They need outlets for their emotions every day. Come on, Captain.”

“Keith… Keith’s never told me about having a mate.” Shiro can’t help the disappointment that colours his voice, and he looks away from Pidge’s confused expression.

Maybe it happened when Shiro was in captivity. But then- Keith didn’t trust him enough to even tell him about it. Who could it be? Hunk? Griffin? There’s an ugly twist in his gut as he runs through the possible names of his crew, and Shiro has to stop himself when he realises that it’s _jealousy_.

He clears his throat, but his words still come out harsh. “Keith’s probably working to rescue us. We have to make sure he doesn’t spend too long without his mate,” he declares.

Pidge’s looking at him like he’s grown an extra head. “Captain,” she says, putting down her work. “Permission to speak freely, sir.”

Shiro replies immediately. “Permission granted, of course.”

“You’re an idiot, Shiro,” she declares.

Shiro blinks twice.

It’s then that a blast rocks the container, screams filtering in through the cracks around the door.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith’s eyes are only for his bonded, mate, whatever they are, and he strides forward to envelop Shiro in a hug. The tension melts from his mind and he sighs contentedly into Shiro’s shoulder. Shiro’s fingers run through his hair tenderly. 
> 
> “You found me, Keith,” Shiro says, and Keith hugs him a little tighter.

Keith sprints towards the containers towards the back of the camp, his mother at his side.

“They’d tracked us somehow to this planet,” Kolivan had said. “This is of course only one of our outposts, but the resistance has benefited greatly from the resources on this planet. Thankfully, he has not yet gathered the source of our power.”

Keith had looked around at the room, at what he’d thought was quintessence. But he’d been mistaken.

“The bioluminescence in the plants,” he’d exclaimed, to Kolivan’s approving nod.

“Affirmative, Commander. It is an alternate energy source.”

Kolivan’d turned back to the rest of the Blades.

“Our sources tell us that Sendak is on a personal mission, hence the relatively low soldier count of ninety. We will rescue the Captain and Science Officer of the USS Voltron, and dissuade Sendak so that he departs the planet. If we succeed, he is likely to gain Zarkon’s disfavour, as he did not sanction these activities.”

Now, Kolivan’s wreaking havoc on the remaining tanks with Antok and Ulaz, distracting the Empire soldiers from Keith and Krolia’s activities.

“We need to find the signal jammer as well,” he hisses to Krolia, who nods. She disappears, and Keith grips the smaller explosives the Blades had given him tighter.

He’s aware of how the pressure on his mind has moved from pulses to an underlying throb, constantly squeezing at his mental barriers. He has to stop to swallow some bile. Which container is it? They’re painted alike, each crudely emblazoned with the symbol of the empire.

He knocks out two sentries and searches the containers they were guarding. Empty. His mind feels like it’s being strangled with every sluggish step he takes.

Closing his eyes, Keith leans his shoulder against the corrugated steel, careful to position himself away from possible sightlines, and tries to remember some meditative techniques. An ocean, he chants repeatedly in his head. _It’s a tempest, but I alone have control over the waters._

The ache retreats slightly, and Keith lets out a slow exhale. In his mind, a small point of light glimmers in the dark night sky. Keith, on his knees in a small vessel, rests on the gentle simmer of the sea and tilts his face towards the brightness.

It’s familiar. At the end of his daily shift, Keith meets his guiding star as he meditates. He lets his mind extend towards it. As he approaches, the light of the star soothes his frayed mental barriers. He’s never been close enough to touch it before-

“Keith.”

Shiro’s voice resounds in his mind.

Keith is jolted out of his trance, and slips a little in the mud as he regains his balance. But the pull of his north star remains, and he follows it to the fourth container down the row, heart thrumming in his side.

He knows where Shiro is.

He pounds on the door, calling out Shiro’s name, and hears Pidge’s voice yell out from inside, “Get back!”

Keith’s Galran reflexes save him as he hurls himself to the side. The doors fly open with a massive boom, tearing off their hinges with the impact and sending what’s left of a sentry flying past Keith’s head. As the smoke clears, Keith sees Pidge and Shiro peek out over a barrel.

Keith’s eyes are only for his bonded, mate, whatever they are, and he strides forward to envelop Shiro in a hug. The tension melts from his mind and he sighs contentedly into Shiro’s shoulder. Shiro’s fingers run through his hair tenderly.

“You found me, Keith,” Shiro says, and Keith hugs him a little tighter. “How did you know we were here?”

Keith draws back as much as his mind accedes, mental bond purring at their reunion. He can’t believe he hadn’t recognised it for what it was before.

“Telepathy,” he mumbles, looking over Shiro’s head injury. “I also found my mother, Shiro.”

Shiro’s eyebrows shoot up.

“That’s incredible, Keith! How? I’m so happy for you.”

Keith flushes at the earnestness in Shiro’s words and jolts a little as Pidge coughs loudly. Shiro’s arms are still firmly around him, their bodies plastered to each other.

“Nice to see you too, Commander.” Her arms are folded, but there’s a grin pulling at the corners of her mouth.

Shiro and Keith jump away from each other, Shiro clearing his throat and Keith ducking his head.

“Let’s get out of here first, yeah? What’s the plan, Keith?”

\---

Flinging the explosives at the feet of the soldiers, Keith leaps forward, stabbing his knife into one’s chest and kicking another to the ground. Pidge’s supporting Shiro’s weight as Keith clears the way for them, regularly firing at soldiers who get too close with her stolen gun.

“I know we’re supposed to only stun and not kill, Commander, but there’s a lot of them,” Pidge yells out.

She’s interrupted as a soldier behind her is cut down, Kolivan, Antok and Ulaz standing in his wake.

“Thankfully, the Blade of Marmora have no such compunction,” Kolivan says, wiping the blood on his blade on a nearby tent.

“They’re with me,” Keith grinds out between his teeth, as he drives a fist into the chest of a sentry. He stands after slipping his blade into his boot, panting heavily as they survey their body-strewn surroundings.

“This area is clear, Commander,” Kolivan intones, and they look to the remaining bastion at the front of the camp. Sendak’s container is surrounded by three layers of soldiers and sentries who had pulled back, the coward himself having taken shelter inside. It’s also probably the source of the jamming signal.

“I’m just worried about-” Keith begins, and a cry of dismay erupts from his throat as Sendak emerges from the doors, two soldiers behind him dragging a barely conscious Krolia along.

Kolivan growls angrily, shifting immediately into a fighting stance, his activated blade before him. Antok and Ulaz respond in kind as well.

“Well, well.” Sendak chuckles. “Here I thought I’d have to drive the legendary Blade of Marmora from their hiding places, like rats from a sewer. Only they’ve come to me.”

Keith hisses as Krolia is made to drop to her knees. 

“Surrender and drop your arms,” Sendak commands. “Now, or she dies.”

A soldier holds a quintessence rifle to Krolia’s side, and Keith can’t breathe. He lays the other explosives on the ground and spreads his palms to face them. Slowly, the others drop their weapons, and the sentries move to restrain them.

When they’re neatly bound up on their knees, Sendak smirks at them.

“This is why the Empire wins and the Garrison always loses. If you are stupid enough to surrender for the sake of one, you are further beyond redemption than I thought. And for a Blade no less.”

He spits on the ground in front of Kolivan, who looks up at him coolly.

Sendak grits his teeth at the absence of a reaction, but calms himself and sighs dramatically, stopping before Shiro.

“I did so want to return you to the Empire for the glory of our Lord Zarkon, but I see now that you would be of little use. You have destroyed our equipment, even though we have given you so much. Isn’t that so, Champion?”

He hooks his claws in Shiro’s suit and hauls him to his feet, causing them to dangle helplessly. Shiro’s breath hitches as Sendak jostles his leg, his face tensed in pain. Keith snarls and tugs violently at his bonds, but they hold fast.

“Ah yes, Commander Keith.” Sendak drops Shiro to the ground where he curls around his leg, panting heavily, and turns his attentions to him.

“You are like an insect, always coming back to save your beloved Captain. I see that he will always be a source of consternation for you.”

Keith glares at him, blood trickling down the side of his face.

“Shut the fuck up,” Pidge hollers, and the brief silence is almost amusing until rage overtakes the stunned look on Sendak’s face. Krolia shifts, awakened by Pidge’s outburst, and knocks her shoulder into Pidge’s chest, as though to stop her.

But the damage has been done. Keith sees the fury rise in Sendak’s eyes, and knows that his emotions have reached a tipping point.

“You will regret your insolence,” Sendak roars, and digs his hand into Shiro’s scalp, jerking his head to the side. Keith lets out a cry at Shiro’s grunt of pain, blood flowing freely now where Sendak’s claws have cut into it. The pounding returns to his mind, stronger than ever. 

Sendak snatches a weapon from the sentry nearest to him and pushes it into Shiro’s temple.

 _No, no, no,_ Keith screams into the void of his mind, broadcasting his rage. Kolivan and the Empire soldiers around him flinch away. But Keith only has eyes for one man.

Pidge bites and kicks until she’s gagged and bound tighter, and numbers beat out strength as multiple sentries immobilise the other Blades.

Keith’s trying to rip into at the cords around his wrists, but his claws have been tied away from his palms and he’s helpless. _Not you_ , he thinks, _not after all this_. He pounds at the walls of his own mind and regrets ever joining Voltron, ever graduating from the Garrison, every decision that’s ever led him to this moment where he can’t- where he can’t protect Shiro.

The ruckus he makes earns him two soldiers pinning his shoulders down, and tears fill his eyes as he meets Shiro’s. Shiro’s jaw is set, tired, and almost resigned, and Keith almost hates him in this moment.

“Goodbye, Captain Shirogane,” Sendak says mockingly, finger reaching for the trigger. Keith chokes on his sobs as Shiro mouths something at him, something he can’t hear over the blood rushing in his ears. Keith screams as Sendak begins to press down, and suddenly his vision whites out.

He feels the strings in his mind snap.

All the rage, grief, and love within him is expelled, a mental shockwave that burns each hostile mind within reach. He can see after a few seconds, and stumbles to his feet, unbelieving.

A ring of grass beneath his feet has been ripped from the dirt. Plants have been wrenched from the soil and flung away from Keith. Soldiers all around him are knocked unconscious, sinking into the muddy ground. Sendak and Shiro stare with mouths agape at him, Sendak’s hand still frozen on the gun.

Keith’s mind is on fire. All that’s between him and Sendak are a few, insignificant steps. He instinctively reaches for his knife and pulls it from his shoe.

“Let go of him,” Keith thunders, and feels a soldier come up on him from the side. He turns him away with a flick of his mind, and the soldier drops to the ground. Behind him, Pidge shouts in victory as she and the Blades make easy work of the remaining sentries.

And in an even more blessed sound, silver particles start to form around them. Hunk, Allura and Lance, with other security crew, arrive armed with phasers. They form a ring around the soldiers that were knocked out cold, looking to Keith for instruction.

“We made contact with the Garrison, Commander,” Lance yells out. “We received Pidge’s signal after you destroyed the jammer.”

Krolia destroyed the signal jammer before she’d been apprehended, Keith realises. She’d also activated Pidge’s combadge earlier, nudging her in the chest, and alerted Voltron to the restored communications. Pidge’s eyes widen in understanding, and she clasps Krolia’s arm in thanks.

Sendak pales slightly and inches backwards slowly, hands still deep in Shiro’s hair as he pushes Shiro in front of him. Shiro’s legs kick out as he fights it, but then his eyes go dazed and his limbs slacken.

Keith lets out a cry of outrage. To invade a person’s mind with your own comes with the greatest dishonour that all Galra condemn. But Sendak only grins cruelly.

“I will be leaving with the Champion. Any attempt to stop me and I will decimate his mind.”

Kolivan steps forward. “More lies, Sendak? You have no power to do so. You have lost here, and you should accept it.”

Keith pushes up against Shiro’s mind, only to be forced back by a repulsive row of mental spikes that reek of dark influence and Sendak. Sendak throws his head back and laughs, gesturing at Shiro. “He is not the only one who has had an upgrade.”

Keith’s had enough. He advances on Sendak, holding out his small knife.

“Careful, Commander,” Sendak sneers, but he’s looking rapidly from left to right as Keith approaches. Shiro looks more and more like a shield than a prisoner, and Keith’s infuriated.

“You will never win,” Keith growls.

He raises his knife above his head, and feels power rush up his arms. Overhead, the glowing leaves begin to sway, wind rustling them audibly.

“Voltron will always be here to stop you,” Keith says, the wind whipping his hair about his face as it builds. The blade in his palm feels hot somehow, a presence that his mind is alerted to. He focuses on it, feeding it with his need to safeguard the Blades, his crew, his mother, his friends-

Shiro.

“And you,” he shouts, pointing his knife at Sendak. “You will never have him!”

The blade in his hand erupts into flaming quintessence, elongating to the length of the other Blades swords. He hears Hunk gasp behind him. With a leap that spans the five metres between them, Keith crests over Sendak’s aborted movement to shoot him and-

Drives the blade straight into Sendak’s chest, not his side.

The blade tears through Sendak’s armour like butter, knocking Sendak back and pinning him to the earth. He cries out in pain and lets Shiro go. The Blades move to ensure that he stays down, Krolia planting one foot on his stomach.

Keith steps back and goes to his knees, cradling Shiro in his arms. Shiro blinks slowly as the fog recedes from his eyes, and raises his hand weakly to cup Keith’s cheek. The stripes on his cuff are worn ragged, stained with dirt and blood as is his hand, but Keith’s never been so happy to have Shiro’s palm where it is. He places a hand over Shiro’s and lets out a shuddering sigh.

“Keith.” Shiro’s voice comes out low and gentle. He’s wiping at the tears that Keith didn’t know were flowing. “You saved me.”

Keith shakes his head, their mental bond singing with delight at Shiro’s proximity and the flow of emotions through where they’re touching. “No, Shiro,” he smiles shakily through his blurred vision. “You saved me.”

He touches his forehead to Shiro’s, the both of them just breathing each other in as Hunk comes forward to discreetly scan Shiro’s leg. He gives them a thumbs up before retreating to the others.

“I was so worried,” Keith chokes out. “I thought- I thought maybe they’d taken you away again. I wasn’t careful enough.”

Shiro’s frowning before Keith finishes his sentence, and places a finger to Keith’s lips. “Me being taken, was never and will never be your fault, Keith. I know what I signed up for on Voltron with you.”

“And you were incredible, Keith,” Shiro huffs out a laugh. “Even when I was under Sendak’s control, a part of me knew it would be okay.” He traces a finger down Keith’s arm. “How many times are you gonna have to save me, Keith?”

Keith knows his face is open with all the affection he has for the man in his arms, for everyone to see, and yet he can’t bring himself to care. “As many times as it takes, Shiro.”

Shiro’s answering smile is blinding, and Keith ducks his head, a flush spreading over his cheeks.

“So,” Shiro grunts, as Keith helps him into a sitting position. “Pidge mentioned that Galra need mental bonds to stabilise their emotions.” Keith’s hands slip a little on Shiro’s back before catching. “And I thought- I heard something like a voice in my mind back in the container.”

 _Is he- mad?_ Keith inhales sharply and avoids Shiro’s eyes as he answers honestly.

“It- it was me.”

Shiro’s gone rigid under his hands and he can feel so much apprehension from where Keith’s touching his skin.

“But it’s nothing, really,” he adds in a rush, tripping over his words. “It’s nothing unless the other person agrees to a formal bond, a mating bond.”

 _God that was awful_. He winces as what’s left his mouth sinks in.

Keith thinks maybe it’s time to let Allura tend to Shiro instead and rises slowly, but Shiro catches his arm in a surprisingly determined grip.

“Why would we have a mental bond?” Shiro asks, and Keith’s relieved to see no sign of anger in Shiro’s eyes. Instead, his gaze is severe, devastating, and Keith hurries to answer him.

“Well, it’s often someone who’s closest to the Galra’s mind or heart,” he recites automatically. “A t’hy’la. Friend, brother, and- ”

Shiro’s eyes soften, and Keith’s voice grows smaller and smaller as he realises how incriminating his words are. But he can’t look away from Shiro’s gentle gaze.

“And what, Keith?” Shiro whispers, and Keith hopes with all his heart that he’s not imagining the hope reverberating between them.

“-lover,” Keith murmurs, his breath hitching in his throat. They stare at each other, Keith’s heart hammering in his side. He can hear Shiro’s heart as well, racing in tandem with his. Time seems to slow, and all that matters right now is the weight of Shiro against him, the comfort of the warmth in their mental bond.

He doesn’t know who moves, maybe it’s both of them, but Keith’s lips brush against Shiro’s lightly, and his mind evaporates. He does it again, more firmly this time, and Shiro sighs into his mouth.

The rush of love he pushes through the bond to Shiro has Shiro gasping and pulling back. Keith panics, about to apologise, but Shiro drags him back in and kisses him wetly, groaning into Keith’s mouth as his tongue slides against Keith’s.

There, under the dark skies, safe and surrounded by his loved ones, Keith’s mind is finally at peace.

\---

“You missed the heart,” Sendak chokes out, malicious tone mostly impaired by the blood bubbling up in his throat.

Keith twists the blade from his chest, and blood leaks from Sendak’s mouth.

“I know,” Keith whispers, and stands, hands shaking. “You will be returned to the Federation and unto Marmora laws, to face trial for your war crimes and role in the abduction of Captain Shirogane.” His announcement rings out across the battle-wrecked camp, the fire-scorched earth and in the ears of enemy and friend alike.

Away parties from the other backup ship sent by the Garrison arrive, appearing beside them. They lead the Empire soldiers away and confiscate their weapons, locking Sendak into restraints.

Keith watches them disappear, the last pieces of the camp disappearing into Garrison custody, and the ship leave orbit. Shiro had left earlier as exhaustion got the better of him, supported on Allura’s strong shoulders.

 _This’ll be a hell of a ride to put down in the log_. He’s not envious of the long report Shiro will have to write, attending to his duties as meticulously as he does. But before that, he has a long rest ahead of him.

Keith turns to the forest. There’s one more thing he must attend to.

Without Galra senses, Keith’s sure there’s no chance that he’d have noticed the two figures just behind the treeline. They’re probably making themselves visible for him.

He steps into the open arms of his mother, sighing as she embraces him firmly. Kolivan’s silent for a moment, then puts a hand on Keith’s shoulder.

“You performed admirably, Keith,” Kolivan affirms, and Keith nods at him over his mom’s shoulder.

“You didn’t kill Sendak,” Krolia says to him, more a statement than a question.

Keith draws back and sighs. “I- I wanted to. For a moment, I thought I was losing control.”

Krolia frowns. “That’s not what a Galra losing control looks like, Keith. You would have killed Sendak without pause.” She smooths her hands over the folds of his Garrison suit.

“You were determined. I saw the single-minded focus a strong bond gives, Keith,” she says and her mouth spreads in a small smile. “This Shiro must be very precious to you.”

Keith smiles back and nods. “He is, mom.” Then he frowns, and picks his next words carefully. “Are you sure you can’t come with us?”

Krolia steps back with a sigh. “I am needed here, Keith. It is only logical, and my work is not done.”

Keith expected it, but her answer still feels like a punch to the gut.

“I will contact you from time to time, Keith. Do not be sad.” She squeezes his arms tightly. “I am so proud of you, my child,” she says, and Keith chokes back a sob. “I will always be proud of you.”

Keith knows he has to go, but this is the first time beaming back to his starship feels like a sacrifice. He raises his hand slowly to his combadge.

“Voltron, one to beam up.”

The world falls away around him, with Keith holding his mother’s warm gaze all the while.

\---

Keith’s flat on his face on a blanket, legs cramping in a chair when he feels a broad palm stroke his hair. He jolts awake, sitting up and meeting Shiro’s tired, grey eyes.

“Are you okay?” Keith immediately casts an eye over the medical charts near the bed, but the figures seem stable. Still, maybe he should call Coran over-

Shiro laughs, a sound that Keith’s missed sorely over the past few days, and Keith just stares at him in confusion. Then he catches sight of himself in the mirror on Shiro’s bedside table and winces. There’re marks from the blanket on his cheek, and his hair makes him look like a half-plucked chicken.

“Come here,” Shiro says, reaching out and taking Keith’s forearm.

Keith lets himself be yanked forward, careful to avoid Shiro’s leg, so that he’s sitting on the side of Shiro’s bed. The closeness makes Keith blush, and Shiro smiles up at him.

“You’re so pretty, Keith,” Shiro says, and Keith’s eyes widen before he looks around frantically for the medical staff on rotation. Thankfully, no one seems to be in earshot.

“Shiro, you’re the Captain, you can’t just-”

“Can’t just what?” Shiro asks, lips tilting up in a wry smile, and Keith feels his cheeks heat even more.

“Are you feeling better?” Keith asks hurriedly, clearing his throat. His leg had taken a longer operation than Coran had first estimated, leaving Keith pacing on the bridge, physically present but his mind far, far away.

Shiro allows the change in subject and slowly flexes his legs, drawing them up under the blanket, and he grimaces slightly.

“I probably need to rest them for a while before I start walking anywhere.”

Keith pats his leg just above the knee and hands him a glass of water from the replicator, watching as Shiro takes a few laborious sips.

“So,” Shiro starts, putting the cup down. “There was something I wanted to say to you.”

Keith’s been dreading this conversation slightly. Krolia had gotten to Shiro while Keith had been supervising cleanup, and Keith’s not sure what kind of shovel talk his fiercely protective mother had given him.

Shiro catches the look on Keith’s face and chuckles, placing a hand on his cheek again. The contact’s ruinous, the warmth flowing from Shiro intensified by the same sensation straight to his mind.

“It’s not Krolia, although she did tell me to ask you about how Galra kiss,” Shiro says dryly. Keith’s sure he must be perpetually flushed purple by now, but he just doesn’t know how to respond now that Shiro’s cocky smiles and heated glances are directed at him.

“I want to know when we started having a bond.” Shiro says, and Keith bites his lip before he replies.

“I know it sounds strange, Shiro, but- I didn’t even know it happened until my mom described it to me. I swear it’s only just vague emotions.” Keith looks down at his hands in his lap. “It’s something that develops over time. With someone that I trust the most.”

Shiro places a hand on his shoulder. “What would a real mating bond be like, then?”

Keith sucks in a breath, eyes flashing up to Shiro’s. He can’t possibly be asking what Keith’s thinking. But Shiro’s just looking at him attentively, face completely open and waiting, and Keith takes the leap.

“We’d be able to hear each other’s thoughts. Communicate. But it’s more than that. For Galra, it’s trusting you with every part of my mind.” Keith pauses. “It’s all or nothing, Shiro. It’s forever.”

Shiro nods, and it’s only then that Keith realises that he’s been leaning closer and closer to him. Their faces are inches apart.

“Did you hear what I said to you in that camp, Keith?” Shiro’s breath is cool on his face, and Keith can’t help how his eyes drop to Shiro’s lips for a moment. “Before you sent out that wildly awesome mental blast.”

Keith snorts, thinking back to how he’d only seen Shiro’s lips move for a millisecond and shakes his head.

Shiro leans forward so that their noses are touching, and Keith’s heart stops. “I said, I love you, Keith,” he whispers, and Keith inhales sharply.

Shiro laughs and tucks a lock of Keith’s hair behind his ear. “Why do you look so surprised? There’s never been anyone like you to me, Keith. No one could ever stand up to you.”

Every word is a shock to Keith’s heart. He sits there, blinking dumbly.

“I love you, Keith,” Shiro repeats. “I love you.”

Keith’s fingers dig into Shiro’s arms to anchor himself as the tenderness Shiro’s channelling to his mind spreads through his body. It’s too much. He feels his eyes shift to yellow.

“Kiss me, t’hy’la,” Shiro breathes.

Keith gasps. Swinging a leg over Shiro’s lap, he sinks into it, grabbing Shiro’s face in both hands and swallowing Shiro’s surprised moan. He licks into Shiro’s mouth, kissing him hungrily, and Shiro responds in kind. Their kisses turn sloppy, Keith trailing them down Shiro’s neck and sucking them into the soft skin there.

“I love you too,” Keith says into his throat, and Shiro lets out a long groan as Keith grinds down onto his lap. “So much, Shiro, you don’t know how long I’ve wanted you.”

“My beautiful t’hy’la,” Keith whispers, kissing back into Shiro’s mouth. Shiro has to draw back for a moment to breathe, and Keith occupies himself with reaching a hand down towards the edge of Shiro’s medbay gown-

And then Keith’s combadge beeps insistently. Keith lets out a long sigh as he drops his forehead onto Shiro’s chest.

“Late for shift, Commander,” Shiro teases as Keith reluctantly clambers off Shiro.

Keith leans over to kiss his forehead, and Shiro beams up at him.

“Rest up, Captain. We miss you on the bridge.”

Keith turns for one last look before the door slides shut. Shiro’s already fallen asleep, chest rising and falling steadily, dark lashes against the crests of his cheeks.

Keith leaves for Alpha shift with a wide smile on his face and Shiro in his heart.

\---

“Captain on the bridge,” Lance pipes up, and Keith spins to face the turbolift.

There Shiro is, freshly shaved, back in his gold command shirt. The lights of the bridge glint off the combadge on his broad chest and the stripes at his wrist. As he steps off the turbolift, he shoots Keith an easy grin.

 _Fuck_. His presence is magnetic, and heat colours Keith’s cheeks.

Keith can’t look away.

Shiro takes his seat in the Captain’s chair, letting out a gusty exhale as he does so. The entire bridge stands at attention, and Keith fills with immense pride at how much the crew respects their captain. How much they love Shiro.

“Yeah, Captain!” Lance whoops, clapping until the bridge joins him in resounding applause, Hunk throwing his arms around Pidge. Allura lets out a cheer, her eyes shining with happiness. They quiet only when Shiro holds up a hand for pause, abashed at his reception.

“Voltron,” he says. “Thank you for your competence in my absence. At ease.”

“Welcome back, Captain,” Keith says, deciding to speak for them as he stands at Shiro’s shoulder, hands folded behind his back.

The bridge takes their seats, back to their usual professionalism.

Shiro turns to smile up at Keith. “Glad to be back, Commander,” he murmurs, his eyes gentle as they meet Keith’s.

Keith has a sudden impulse to kiss Shiro, right there in the Chair, in full view of the bridge. He clears his throat and gives the collar of his shirt a quick tug, straightening up.

“Captain, the Garrison reported that the Olkari suspect Empire activity a few sectors from Olkarion. We are to investigate, and assist if necessary,” Keith says, pointing to the holographic starchart that Pidge pulls up from the science station.

“Set a course,” Shiro orders, and Lance does so, turning back to the conn with a “Yes, Captain.”

The bridge gazes into the dark cloak of space, and Keith feels the familiar tug of anticipation as his gaze meets Shiro’s. Side by side, the way they’ve always been.

Shiro gives Keith a hint of a smile and looks out of the viewscreen. His hand lifts into the air, pointing ahead.

The air is electric as he opens his mouth.

“Engage.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you so much for going on this sheith-fied star trek romp with me!! please let me know what you think and bonus if you could pick out some references ♡ i'll definitely be writing more for this au so i hope you'll stick around :)  
>   
> please find me on [tumblr](https://mmarmora.tumblr.com/)


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